The Ice Age can be explained by some well - placed specks of branding iron . Adding junk to the piddle around Antarctica can supercharge plankton outgrowth , causing global temperature drops . To stop climate variety , we need a whole mickle of iron filings .
Here ’s how the mental process work . Most of the metre , the Southern Ocean is passably much bereft of biography , because there are n’t enough resources to sustain plankton population . However , every so often the Earth will somewhat shift on its axis – this is known as the Milankovitch cycle – and this has widespread climatic logical implication . The Earth begins to cool down , the Continent become more arid , and this in turning kicks up vast dust storms that , in the end , finish up in the Southern Ocean .
Those dust storms carry huge sum of iron to the polar area , enough to alternate - start the creation of massive amounts of plankton . These plankton get to piece of work sucking up carbon dioxide , which is also crucial to keep the planet coolheaded over time . These iron deposits are enough to fuel entire Ice Ages , and you could probably see the potential software in today ’s warming world . Of course , we do n’t need to start dumping immense amounts of iron into the oceans unless we ’re moderately damn certain that it ’s go to work .
Now , thanks to inquiry by Alfredo Martinez - Garcia of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology , we have our most solid grounds yet . Analysis of marine cores taken from the southern Atlantic Ocean divulge that , going back four million years , dust levels are doubly as high during periods of deep glaciation – in other words , during the Ice Ages – than they were normally . That ’s reasonably compelling evidence that iron dust can have a major cooling upshot on the planet ’s climate .
So far , we ’ve done some nonaged experimentation with dumping iron filings into the ocean , but unfortunately we have n’t produced anything more than some small plankton blooms . The issue may well be one of scale – this might be a solution that we have to commit to completely for it to make for – and larger - scale experiments might now be in rescript . That ’s unquestionably risky , but at least it search like the available grounds has tilted decidedly in its favor .
NatureviaNew Scientist . Imagevia .
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